Thats why they like to say they sell you the service which is abstract, and the unit which is physical and make the service possible , and you become the owner and is therefore responsible for the unit.
They forget, the physical unit has software/firmware in it making it work, which is surely not licenced to you.

I had two units installed, the tech told me no testing for these, the company does it. After 3 years and more than R3000.00 down the toilet we found out it never worked, they never tested it, they never notified me to test it, and could not prove to me it actually works, They refused to removed the units from my vehicles, I found the one and disconnect it. To hell with tracking.

Expert Member

This is not the first problem I have read regarding tracking units draining batteries rapidly, that said ideally you wouldn't leave your car for a week and not start it.

Another recent problem I discovered was with my mom's tracker (from tracker), all the new ones use an app to activate , her app is so buggy that she has to open it , arm the tracker, close the app open it again , select arm again , redo it several times till she gets the sms that it's activated , I have tried everything on her phone (hauwei P20 lite) to get the app to work but it's just useless, how this all passed QA nobody knows my thoughts are they tried it on a Samsung galaxy flagship phone once and called it day :/

Anyhow my car has a cheap Chinese tracker I got from AliExpress , I tested it's pull and it's about 150-250ma never gave me a problem, no idea what tracker and the other companies are using ...

Executive Member

I don't get why you would voluntarily want a tracking device in your car. If your car gets stolen you really don't want to get it back after it's been ransacked and violated and who knows what else done to it. It will never be the same again so rather not make it any easier to get it back.

There are plenty of insurance companies that don't require a tracking device and in many cases the monthly contract fee for a tracker is more than the extra premium you pay for not having a tracking device anyway.

Honorary Master

I don't get why you would voluntarily want a tracking device in your car. If your car gets stolen you really don't want to get it back after it's been ransacked and violated and who knows what else done to it. It will never be the same again so rather not make it any easier to get it back.

There are plenty of insurance companies that don't require a tracking device and in many cases the monthly contract fee for a tracker is more than the extra premium you pay for not having a tracking device anyway.

Nord of the South

The chances are that if they stole your car you might not want it back. If the thieves did not damage it, the police most likely will. Friends car was stolen, trackers took photos before the police took the car in, police ripped open all the seats and internal panels and damaged most of the interior of the car. Pathetic. Gave it back just like that.

Member

Well I can relate to the battery issue. My previous car had a unit installed at the time of purchase as it was required by my insurance. After about 5 years I had it deactivated. About a year later the it started draining the battery within a day. I had to replace the battery every couple of months.

At one point my break lights stopped working as well. Problem was traced to the tracker unit's panic button was connected to the cabling.

ZA Domains representative

Fortunately my insurance doesn’t require a tracker on any of my vehicles so I stay far away from these devices. The thought of having my location at another’s disposal is discomforting, who knows what data is shared amongst many third parties.

Expert Member

The tracking company said the onus was on her to check if the unit was activated / working...

“This could have been so much worse. If her car had been hijacked or stolen, her insurance claim could have been disputed because of the fact that the tracking device on her car was not activated,” said Knowler.

Well-Known Member

I don't get why you would voluntarily want a tracking device in your car. If your car gets stolen you really don't want to get it back after it's been ransacked and violated and who knows what else done to it. It will never be the same again so rather not make it any easier to get it back.

There are plenty of insurance companies that don't require a tracking device and in many cases the monthly contract fee for a tracker is more than the extra premium you pay for not having a tracking device anyway.

Agreed think these guys sell snake oil mostly. I have not in my immediate circle ever heard of a successful recovery and as stated you most likely dont even want your car back.

It also mostly depends on what car you drive. Honestly if you are driving a Volvo or Subaru for example dont think you hijacking risk is high at all and the insurance companies simply dont require you to put one in.

The battery drain issue I have experienced myself with a Netstar unit that was 7 years old. Just because the subscription has been stopped doesn't mean the device stops pulling power in the car. They wanted R500 for removal of the unit and to be honest it took very little effort to find the device and remove by someone else.